Togas and Tunics - Clothing of the Ancient Greeks and Romans

Men typically wore a short, knee-length tunic, covered by the toga - a large
semi-circle of cloth draped to leave one arm free. Women wore a longer tunic
topped with a Stola - a rectangular piece of cloth that was draped across the
body and reached to the ground. Cloaks were worn by both men and women to protect against the elements.

The toga originated in Rome. One simple piece of fabric, originally quite small, which was artfully draped and tied. In the early days of the Roman republic, slaves and foreigners were not allowed to wear togas.

Over the years, styles changed and togas grew to be a huge piece of fabric - sometimes as much as 18' long and 10-11' wide! This took considerable effort to drape and keep in place, but it remained the "proper" thing to wear at public events. The practice of wearing togas finaly fell out of favor around 200AD.